GOP tax bill

Whenever I’m asked whether the Trump tax cut is for the rich, I say yes. It is a tax cut for the rich. It is a tax cut for the middle class. It is a tax cut for small businesses. It is a tax cut for the Fortune 100. If you pay federal income taxes, you will in almost all cases, be getting more take-home pay come January 1. What is not true is that the rich get all the benefits of the tax cut and tens of middle income families pay more.

The Republicans, for all their myriad faults, seem to have finally grasped that they must respond to the will of the voters if they wish to maintain their majorities in Congress. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, reconciled with the House tax bill in conference and signed by President Trump into law is a good start toward regaining the trust of their constituents by doing what they were sent to Washington to do.

It’s not clear whether Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., can round up the needed 50 Senate votes and, if he does, whether a conference committee will hammer out a version that can pass both houses. In any case, the Republican tax bills are something more serious and responsible than “hurtling” missiles “tilting” the tax code toward the “wealthy.”